Territory



(No Mcdel.)

" F. M. NEFF.

y GOMPOSITORS FRAME. No. 362,394. Patented May 3, 1887.

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PATENT (lumen.

FRANCIS M. NEFF, OF HURON, DAKOTA TERRTORY.

COMPOSITORS FRAME.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 362,394, dated May 3. 188'7.

l Application filed January 28, 188,7. Serial No. 925,803. (No model.)

To all whom it may concern:

Be it knownthat I, FRANCIS M. NEFF, a

citizen of the United States, residing at Huron, in the county of Beadle and Territory of Dakota, have invented a new and useful'lmprovement in Compositors7 Frames, of which the fol.- lowing is a specification. This invention is a device adapted to be used 1n connection with a printers lower case, for the purpose of saving .compositore both labor and time in setting up matter.

It has been observed in practice that every article written on any subject will contain very similar numbers of certain short and much'- needed words, such as n1ore,7 all,7 no, though, and others. Advantage has been taken of this fact to design the hereindescribed invention, which consists of a rectangular frame containing boxes for the capitals, both large and smal1,and compartments each adapted to hold a number of one of such words, the said boxes and compartments being arranged substantially as hereinafter described, and illustrated in the accompanying drawings, in which- Figure 1 represents a plan view of the device. Fig. 2 represents an edge view of the same, resting upon the cases of a prnters stand; and Fig. 3 represents a perspective view of the rear side of the,device to show the attachment of the legs thereto.

' Referring to the accompanying drawings, A designates the rectangular body or frame of the device, the dimensions of which frame are about twentyfour inches long by thirteen inches broad.

a is a spring copy-holder of ordinary construction attached to the upper` edge of the frame, and with its bend bearing against a block, a', secured upon said edge, as seen in Fig. l.

B B are legs pivoted at the points?) b at the back of the frame, at equal distances from the ends thereof, and capableof having their ends turned laterally upon the frame or toward and from the ends thereof.

C C are legs, having their upper ends pivoted to the legs B. The said ends of the legs C are rounded concentrically with their pivotpoints c c, so that they are capable of being turned rearward thereon.

The frame, when used in connection with the cases, has the legs B B resting in two of the small boxes in the upper row of the lower case, and the legs C C inclined rearward and having their ends in certain of the boxes of the upper case. Thus any desired inclination can be givenyto the frame, and it can be used with any sized cases, as the legs B can be turned outward when the boxes are large and inward when they are small. l

It is intended to use the lower case only with the device.

D D are the boxes for the large capitals, preferably situated at the right upper corner of the device; and E E are the boxes for the small capitals, situated, preferably, at the left upper corner of the same. The members of both sets of boxes are of equal size, and arranged in the well-known manner, and both between and below the two sets of boxes are the equidistant longitudinal grooves F F, which are about one-half inch distant from each other. The grooves are each divided into compartments or pockets ff by the transverse plates fv j ust wide enoughto make suitable parti` tions in the grooves, and far enough apart to have the desired .form of set-up type placed snugly in the pockets between them, each word being repeated a proper number of times, and, consequently, lling a number of pockets.

I do not desire to llimit myself to any particular words, nor to any special number of words, nor the exact arrangement of the words shown in the drawings. That arrangement is, however, preferable, as the words lill more or less pockets, according to the frequency or unfrequency of their use.

The words used are ninety-one (91) in number, according to thelongitudinal arrangement in the grooves, as follows: so, it, is, on, to, no, of,'be, by, or, he, in, do, up, we, an, as, at, has, had, him, our, one, not, but, who, can, for, ing, now, was, see, the, you, and, any, are, all, his, its, each, gone, good, give, will, were, with, when, what, here, have, soon, may, this, that, then, they, tion, them, been, done, down, come,

into, more, most, must, many, much, over,

only, such, some, very, your, upon, from, every, could, other, these, those, until, under, their, where, which, would, should, though, through.

It will be observed that some of the above rco are not complete words, but merely terminations of classes of such words as are frequently used.

My experience has caused me to believe the above arrangement is among the best; but other printers might differ from me in opinion, which is one reason that I do not wish to claim that exact arrangement.

The back of the frame is preferably made of planl ,with the grooves cut therein. Between each two sets of words a thicker' partition is preferably'inserted to mark the ends of each set.

Having described my invention, I claimn l. A device for saving compositors time and labor when setting type,which device consists of a frame provided with longitudinal sets of grooves across its front surface and partitions across said grooves to convert the latter into pockets or compartments, each a proper size to hold a number of type set up to forni a word or part of a word, substantially as speciiied.

2. The combination, with the frame provided wth the boxes for the capitals and the pockets or compartments for the type set up to form words or parts of words, which pockets are formed by longitudinal grooves and the partitions therein, of the legs pivoted to the back of the frame in such a manner as to turn laterally thereon, and the legs pivoted upon the former legs in such manner as to turn rearward and frontward with reference to the device,whereby the latter is rendered capable of being used with cases of diil'erent sizes, substantially as specified. y

In testimony that I claim the foregoing as my own I have hereto affixed my signature in presence of two witnesses.

FRANCIS M. NEFF.

Vitnesses:

J UNrUs W. SHANNON, FRA Ncis RUSSELL. 

